Gaobot.AAG

It uses the LSASS, RPC DCOM and WebDAV vulnerabilities in order to spread to as many computers as possible. It connects to an IRC server and waits for control commands. It allows to obtain information on the affected computer, run files, etc.

Affected platforms:

Windows XP/2000/NT/ME/98/95

First detected on:

July 2, 2004

Detection updated on:

July 2, 2004

Statistics

No

Brief Description

Gaobot.AAG is a worm with backdoor characteristics that belongs to the Gaobot worm family. This family has the following common characteristics:

It affects Windows 2003/XP/2000/NT computers only, as it attempts to exploit the LSASS, RPC DCOM and WebDAV vulnerabilities to spread to as many computers as possible. These vulnerabilities only affect the operating systems mentioned above.

It spreads by attempting to copy itself to network shared resources it accesses.

Once it is run, it connects to a specified IRC server and waits for control commands. As a backdoor, it allows to obtain information on the affected computer, run and download files, launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, upload files by FTP, etc.

In addition, certain variants of Gaobot:

Take advantage of the backdoors opened by the worms Bagle.A and Mydoom.A, in order to spread to those computers affected by these worms.

End processes belonging to antivirus programs, firewalls and system monitoring tools, among others. This leaves the affected computer vulnerable to the attack of other viruses or worms.

End the processes belonging to Nachi.A, Autorooter.A, Sobig.F and several variants of Blaster.

If you have a Windows 2003/XP/2000/NT computer, it is highly recommendable to download the security patches for the LSASS, RPC DCOM and WebDAV vulnerabilities from the Microsoft website.

Visible Symptoms

Gaobot.AAG is difficult to recognize, as it does not show any messages or warnings that indicate it has reached the computer.